"If you hear a voice within you say, 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." --Vincent van Gogh

Monday, March 26, 2007

Storm at Sea

If you go back to my Feb 11th post, you will see how far this has come. Even I was surprised at the change! I painted shadows in the water and darkened the sky (significantly). I added another rock to the right hand side, which I think brings better balance and excitement to the piece. When I first started painting the sky fabric, I got a thick streak of pearl paint on it (over on the left side) and I could not paint over it for anything, so I decided it looked like a shaft of sunlight cutting through the stormy sky and I quilted it to accentuate that. The piece (minus the black) measures 11x14, and at this point I am intending to frame it in a black frame (or mat it in black, if I want to frame it larger). That's why I laid it down on some black fabric for the photo. I really love how the border turned out. I took a fabric that had colors similar to what were in the piece (OK, it was a batik that also happened to have zebras on it ... but that's our little secret!). I layered an aqua sheer over the top (same sheer that I layered over the sandy area, and then I fused a bunch of "Tintzl" together to lay around the edges. I spray basted the three layers together, trimmed it to size, and then centered my water piece on it. I stitched the water piece down, close to the edge, and glued the sequins on to cover the seam. I auditioned a couple of different types of black ribbon as well, but I really liked the sparkle of the sequins. Truth be told, I didn't leave enough of a seam allowance around my piece to stitch the borders to it, but I honestly think this was a better solution and I would use it again - no seam allowance to worry about! I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am to have finished another piece. Yay, me!

3 comments:

Cathie said...

This is so beautiful. Can I have it???? :)
XO

Anonymous said...

I saw this one in the "rough" stage and wasn't so sure you could "bring it all together", but you did ....... quilting really does "make" the piece complete -C

Gudonya! said...

This is SOOOO gorgeous, Michelle! I wish I could see it in person - it looks so real! Thanks so much for inspiring me to take this class. I can hardly wait! :o)

xo debmarie xo